Tony Award nominee Lily Rabe stars in Tony Award-nominated playwright Neil LaBute's new adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie, which premieres April 23 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Lily Rabe
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Jo Bonney, a frequent creative partner of playwright Neil LaBute, directs the writer's new adaptation of the play that will officially open May 1 for a run through June 2. LaBute "has set August Strindberg's classic on Long Island just before the 1929 stock market crash."

LaBute said in production notes, "I wanted this setting to be my own while still dealing faithfully with the themes and mores of the lives of these characters as they were first written. A cloud of desperation and despair will soon hang over the United States but tonight — in this kitchen that Strindberg conjured up 150 years ago — the lives of the three characters in Miss Julie will never be the same."

Here's how Geffen bills Miss Julie: "The scandalous turn-of-the-century play, banned in Britain for nearly 50 years after its publication, chronicles the night-long flirtation and seduction between the wealthy lady of the house and one of her father's household employees. Featuring one of theatre's most commanding female characters, this world premiere adaptation couples provocateurs Strindberg and LaBute to capture the timeless consequences of passion and power."

The production has set design by Myung Hee Cho, costume design by Christina Haatainen Jones, lighting design by Lap Chi Chu and sound design by Vincent Olivieri. Bonney (Off-Broadway productions of LaBute's Some Girl(s), The Break of Noon and Fat Pig) directed the September 2012 West Coast premiere production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at the Geffen (repeating her Off-Broadway work).

LaBute's films include "In the Company of Men" (New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmaker Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), "Your Friends and Neighbors," "Nurse Betty," "Possession," "The Shape of Things" (a film adaptation of his play by the same title), "The Wicker Man," "Lakeview Terrace," "Death at a Funeral" and the forthcoming "Some Velvet Morning." His plays include bash: latter-day plays, The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat , The Distance From Here, Autobahn, Fat Pig (Olivier nomination for Best Comedy), Some Girl(s), This Is How It Goes, Wrecks, Filthy Talk for Troubled Times, Lovely Head, In a Dark Dark House, reasons to be pretty (Tony Award nomination for Best Play), reasons to be happy and the forthcoming The Money Shot.